Internet Sources

To see the progression of Pennsylvania county borders over time, see the PA Genweb Project's rendition of Department of Internal Affairs. Thomas A. Logue, secretary. Genealogical Maps of the counties of Pennsylvania. Compiled and prepared by the Bureau of Land Records - 1933.

Ancestor Tracks has posted free, downloadable 19th-century landowner maps and atlases for about 85% of all the counties of PA and will eventually post at least one landowner map or atlas for every county; they have also published books documenting the first landowners of 7 counties which are for sale.

Historical aerial maps can be used at Penn Pilot. The searches are broken into three time periods: 1937-1942, 1957-1962 and 1967-1972. There is a preview of each aerial view, but downloading maps enables the user to better magnify the area.

Printed Sources

The Pennsylvania State Library has an excellent collection of maps and county atlases for almost all counties. Most of these atlases were published from 1850 to 1880. You can write to the library to order a map for a particular town or county.

A helpful guide to the holdings at the State Archives is Martha L. Simonetti, comp., Donald H. Kent and Harry E. Whipkey, eds., Descriptive List of the Map Collection in the Pennsylvania State Archives (Harrisburg, PA; Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1976;FHL book 974.8 E73p and FHL film 1321380 item 2. The university libraries in Pennsylvania also have map collections.

For a listing of topographical maps see United States, Geological Survey, Pennsylvania: Index to Topographic and Other Map Coverage (Reston, Virginia: The Survey, [1983?].FHL book 974.8 A1 no. 665

Atlases

The Family History Library has many maps of Pennsylvania. Atlases for the years 1790, 1810, 1823, 1838, 1857, 1862, 1878, 1884, and 1917 FHL film 2083 Another useful atlas is H.F. Walling and O.W. Gray, Historical Topographical Atlas of the State of Pennsylvania (1872; reprint, Knightstown, Indiana: Bookmark, 1977. FHL book 974.8 E3w

An excellent atlas, comprehensive in detail, is Atlas of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University, 1989. FHL book 974.8 E7ap The historical portion of this work is published separately as Edward K. Muller, ed., A Concise Historical Atlas of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1989; Family History Library book Q 974.8 E7apa).

To locate Philadelphia wards and townships from 1711 to 1965, see John Daly and Allen Weinberg, Genealogy of Philadelphia County Subdivisions, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia, PA: Department of Records, 1966; Family History Library book 974.811 E3w; fiche 6046613).

City ward maps

Wards were civil subdivisions of cities that divided services such as police, fire and rescue, utilities, and voting. Ward maps can be helpful when using census records. See Ward Maps of United States Cities: Microfilm Reproduction of 232 Maps Described in Ward Maps of United States Cities. Washington, D. C.: Library of Congress, [1975?]. (Family History Library film 1377700; on 320 fiche beginning with 6016554.) These include: